[LAU] OT Re: rt kernels

[Ralf Mardorf]

On Fri, 2011-06-10 at 15:50 -0500, Brent Busby wrote:
> On Thu, 9 Jun 2011, Ralf Mardorf wrote:
> 
> > I experienced the same issues regarding to the resolution and the 60 
> > Hz stroboscope (and a non working mouse wheel for my PS/2 mouse, slow 
> > down Internet for PPPoE etc.) with current debianoid Linux. They drop 
> > old hardware, even if they claim not to do.
> 
> I don't know if it's related to your problem, but since I run Gentoo, I 
> see a lot of the changes that happen as they come down from upstream.
> 
> Some things that have changed recently regarding the kernel and X11, or 
> at least probably since the last time you upgraded:
> 
> * KMS is now becoming normal.  KMS is Kernel Mode Setting, which means
>    the kernel now has control of your video resolution rather than the X
>    server.  This is apparently more efficient at the machine level, but
>    because it is now just debuting, it is still somewhat buggy on some
>    video chipsets.  (I have an older Radeon card at home that it doesn't
>    work on without all sorts of video problems, but a newer Radeon at
>    work that KMS works flawlessly on.)  Because KMS is now in charge of
>    setting your screen resolution, your problem may be related.  It is
>    possible to disable it, either with a kernel parameter passed from
>    Grub ("nomodeset"), or by recompiling your kernel with the KMS option
>    set to default to off.  I had to do this with my home machine.
> 
> * Individual device drivers for X11 input devices (keyboard, mouse,
>    trackpad, etc.) have become obsolete.  No longer does X use a keyboard
>    driver, a mouse driver, and so on.  One driver called 'evdev' now
>    handles all input.
> 
> * Also, this isn't the actual upstream Linux kernel, but is Debian --
>    they have now decided to drop non-OpenSource firmware blobs from their
>    packaged kernel.  This has the effect of making some peripherals that
>    once worked fine now unusable on the packaged Debian kernel.  In some
>    cases, it even makes Debian uninstallable on machines which need such
>    firmware blobs to run their disk controllers.
> 
> Your problem could be something else entirely though...Linux is a 
> rolling stone.

Thank you for the explanation :)

I had a stressful week with setting up Linux and I'm not ready yet, but
the only thing I didn't get working is the mouse. I replaced it with an
USB mouse, anything else does work. Now I only need to set up
nonessentials.
Most things seems to work better, than they have ever worked before.
Regarding to the Internet it could be issues caused by my provider, I
don't know.

The computer now seems to be in a good shape and my systolic blood
pressure was at 154 in the morning and is at 142 now ;), if I reach 139
Linux and I are ok again. Oh, this is for the imaginary OT blog.

I did expect trouble with audio, but not with anything else.
Still euphoric, but not pissed of.

My impression is that audio reached a very high quality state, but that
the environment, desktop, X etc. might do a small step in the wrong
direction, but at the moment I'm unable to see it dispassionate.

Hm, ok, time to stop writing OT, but I liked to reply.

Should do a backup now.

Best,

Ralf